Rita Keller, an award-winning and widely respected voice to CPA firm management, is uniquely positioned to help CPAs and their teams face rapid and significant change.
The 2022 survey featured a series of questions exploring ATAWW programs as well as remote client service, non-traditional staffing strategies, and cultural shifts required. Some interesting findings include:
95% offer remote auditing, and the percentage who performed more than half their audits away from the client site soared from 14% in 2020 to 54% in 2022
83% of firms allow Admin and Operations to work remote or blended
81% who employ remote talent hired a “stranger” outside their geography (up from 38% in 2020)
73% don’t dictate when extra hours are worked (no more mandatory Saturdays!)
19% offer Unlimited PTO
12% close the office between Christmas and New Year’s
“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.” – Albert Einstein
This week for the Friday Flashback, I am going way back to 2010 and a post that asks: Do you have magnificent managers? The sad thing is this post still applies today, 2023!
I know you are busy, but find some time this weekend to recharge your batteries.
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
“The paperless office is possible, but not by imitating paper. Note that the horseless carriage did not work by imitating horses.” – Ted Nelson
How much do new college graduates know about life?
You are desperately seeking these accounting majors for your firm. You might be surprised at what they do not know about general life skills that are put to use in the business world. Many times have you heard them say, “I never learned that in college!”
I recently heard a story from a grandmother about her granddaughter, a college student. I was amazed, but I think the more you know about your talent pool, the better you will be able to understand, manage, and mentor them.
A baby boomer lady was driving accompanied by her 20-year-old granddaughter, a college student. The lady couldn’t find a U.S. Postal Service dark blue mailbox where she could simply pull up and deposit her (paper) mail. She parked a couple of parking spaces away and asked her granddaughter to get out of the car, walk a few steps and put a letter into the mailbox. From the sidewalk side of the mailbox, as you know, you simply use the handle to open the mailbox and drop in the letter. The granddaughter admitted she had never mailed a letter this way and couldn’t figure out how to get the letter into the mailbox.Grandma had to give her specific instructions.
As your new recruits arrive in the office, you already know that you have to teach them SO much. Sometimes the little things are very baffling to them. Be patient. They are accustomed to a paperless world.
I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.
Today, I am just sharing some interesting comments I have heard recently about how some firms respond to the huge challenge of recruiting new team members.
These examples are not from small firms, nor are they from huge firms. The comments are from what I call mid-size firms.
One firm works with seven different professional recruiters.
Another firm paid over $300,000 to recruiters in 2022.
Maybe you don’t have to go to these links, but I hope you are acting aggressively when recruiting.
Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.
“The responsibility of a company is to serve the customer. The responsibility of leadership is to serve their people so that their people may better serve the customer. If leaders fail to serve their people first, both customer and company will suffer.” – Simon Sinek
You have worked hard to attract enough talent to be able to master this coming tax season. Now, you have to work at keeping them.
Per an article via Bloomberg, there are five benefits US employees want:
Remote work
Flexibility
Sustainable work
Financial health
Job security
The CPA profession offers so many key benefits. I be you’ve got these!
“Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job.” – Jim Lovell
I’m not talking about what attracts clients to your firm. I wonder what your people would say if you asked why they stay at your firm. Not a full-blown employee satisfaction survey like the best places to work surveys. I’ve never been convinced that these are always truthful.
I mean a few simple questions as part of your stay interview initiative.
Dan Rockwell (@Leadershipfreak) gives us three enlightening questions to ask each of your team members. Try asking these questions randomly, one at a time, when interacting with individuals.
If you recommended our company as a good place to work to a friend, what would you say?
What do you enjoy most about your job? Least?
How much of your day are you using your strengths?
A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.
“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie
Since 2020, CPAs have experienced more emotions in their work lives than ever before. 2020 opened up a new world for how accountants and their teams work. While accountants are pictured as stoic, and many are, the pandemic brought forth emotions not usually experienced in the CPA profession.
The rapid growth of technology advancements and the unveiling of various programs and applications that could do work more quickly, efficiently, and profitably than humans caused some concern for many.
Owners are concerned about having enough workers and having workers who want to work remotely. Employees are concerned that their desire to have a significantly more flexible work schedule will not be accepted by their bosses.
So many changes have happened and continue to happen for both for the firm owners and employees. Some of the changes came easily, and some did not. Some are still struggling with changes other CPA firms changed 25 years ago.
Identifying how people feel and how they are best managed is so important. It is time to revisit your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. The term was first coined in 1990 by researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey but was later popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman.
Read more about EQ in this blog post from 2019. Read the quotes above again.
CEOs are hired for their intellect and business expertise – and fired for a lack of emotional intelligence.
“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
This time of year, there is always talk about holidays. “We get Christmas Eve off.” “We only get a half day on Christmas Eve.” Those kinds of comments flow among your workforce and their friends and relatives.
Are you competitive when it comes to holidays for your employees? There was a recent discussion on the CPAFMA discussion board. By the way, it is worth your membership fee to get access to the discussion board. Some firms reported offering as few as seven paid holidays. I recommend that you provide nine or ten, and several firms do provide that many.
Of course, religious holidays make a difference in some firms, as do state observances.
Here’s a standard 10-day holiday menu offered by CPA firms:
January 1 – New Year’s Day
The first Friday after April 15th – Tax Holiday
May – Memorial Day
July – Independence Day
September – Labor Day
November – Thanksgiving
November – The day after Thanksgiving
December – Christmas Eve
December – Christmas Day
Floating – The birthday of the employee or other reason
We all know and have complained about how many holidays Federal employees receive, probably because we don’t get mail on those days. Here’s the Federal holiday listing for 2023. Notice they don’t get the day after Thanksgiving, nor Christmas Eve.
Monday, January 02 *
New Year’s Day
Monday, January 16
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 20
Washington’s Birthday
Monday, May 29
Memorial Day
Monday, June 19
Juneteenth National Independence Day
Tuesday, July 04
Independence Day
Monday, September 04
Labor Day
Monday, October 09
Columbus Day
Friday, November 10 *
Veterans Day
Thursday, November 23
Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 25
Christmas Day
If a holiday falls on a Saturday, for most Federal employees, the preceding Friday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, for most Federal employees, the following Monday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes.
I have observed that no matter how generous with holidays and PTO you are with your employees, in a CPA firm, the work always has to get done – and it does.
Enjoy the long New Year’s holiday weekend – Happy New Year!
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.
“Leadership requires the courage to make decisions that will benefit the next generation.” – Alan Autry
CPA firms are trying many things to win the war for talent. So many firms have definitely increased current salaries, increased the salary offer to new graduates, and given stay bonuses to valued team members.
Money talks, but it does take more than salary dollars to win and keep good people.
One issue that I have noticed recently is that CPA firms do pay 100% of the health insurance premium for their employee. Health insurance is available for the employee’s family, but they must pay a significant part of that premium. Also, many firms do not offer dental or vision.
Maybe insurance is something you should review as you begin a new year. Is there more you can do in this area? Perhaps your main competitors are not offering dental/vision. Being generous with your insurance benefits might make you unique in your marketplace and help you attract and keep talented people.
What about the rest of your employee benefits package? Is there more you can do to make the entire benefits package more impressive?
He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.
“If there’s one thing I learned from Rodrick, it’s to set people’s expectations real low so you end up surprising them by practically doing nothing at all.” ― Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
I have observed this often. Current CPA firm partners “grew up” in a taskmaster culture. The partners that supervised them were tough. Or, to put it nicely, they were challenging and hard to please. They set very high standards. They expected hard work and dedication to the firm and the profession.
Then, over time, those young CPAs became partner themselves. They didn’t want to continue the “tough” firm culture. So, the pendulum began to swing in the other direction. The firm became less aggressive, yet it continued to grow and prosper. The partners became what you might call wimpy. They avoided confrontation with staff and with each other. They became complacent.
I heard from a person at a successful firm recently that the firm is the “Yes” firm. They never say “No” to any request from an employee. Of course, this is because of the extreme labor shortage in the profession right now.
Does never saying “No” sound like a long-term plan? Maybe. But is it too much like the “everybody gets a trophy” culture that really isn’t how life works? Does it punish the all-stars for the comfort of the poor performers?
I am hoping that your firm fits somewhere between tough and wimpy.
Mom is always saying I'm a smart kid, but that I just don't apply myself.
